Daniele and I talk about what history is, the massive tangle of podcasters and public figures that all lead back to a certain Joe Rogan era of podcasting and how that launched my and Daniele’s and Duncan’s careers, how even the most interesting stories in history can still fall away, how history over-privileges war stories, how differences in consciousness affect how history is told, the problems with identity, how fascism feeds identity and vice versa, why disagreement isn’t valuable, and how our non-religious upbringings affected us.

Well friends, the time has come for me to hang out with my favorite be-bearded funny podcast mystic, Duncan Trussell.

Maybe you’ve heard me or just listened to his amazing pan-mystic-technoccultist thoughts on Duncan’s show, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour. But if not, you should – He’s creating bridges between humor, politics, mysticism, magic, and data. And not in some dumb cheesy new age NPR way, either. It’s the real deal.

IN THIS EPISODE

How Duncan moved from focusing on comedy to expanding mysticism and magick: 1:45

“Sex is more like conversation than anything else”: 5:20

The shaming of serious discussion, and the disruption of comfortable talk: 8:00

How to harmonize with boredom: 11:20

DWE – Driving While Enlightened (when Ram Dass was pulled over by the police): 16:00

I do not like all of Duncan’s guests – how does he roll with them? 18:55

People will change, and we can be a part of that :28:10

Okay, and what about Joe Rogan having a bunch of assholes on his show?: 30:10

So who wants to start a demon podcast? (Not me): 32:30

The story of Hitler dick tattoo: 35:00

Let’s do dual work cultivating love and craziness (and Duncan’s dog liked barking at this) and also defending against the anti-Christ: 39:05

There are people who do evil, and here’s a little bit about them: 43:20

To fight or not to fight, and how would you know the difference, and what is fighting anyway?: 47:10

The black magician who saw Christ: 56:10

I’m not interested in the valorization of disagreement, and neither is Duncan: 1:10:40

Here we are on the excellent Grimerica podcast, talking all sorts of weird shit.

Why we’re in a spiritual Renaissance.

What’s up with all that Pizzagate stuff?

What’s the matter with materialism?

How you can be an occultist by just looking around the room.

Why going to a haunted house with a Ouija Board would be the best scary idea you might ever have.

And more! Gordon and I have talked before, of course, but it was nice talking on someone else’s podcast – where we were both interrupted with questions, concerns, and challenges by the Grimerica guys, who are both well-meaning and conspiracy-minded. They’re great. Give it a go (interview starts at 49.05)!

The occult is contentious, powerful, absurd, and absolutely vital. My online course, What Is the Occult? Is THIS SUNDAY, 3/12 at noon (PST). Sign up for just 15 bucks! If you can’t attend that day/time, no problem! Your ticket gets you exclusive access to a recording of the whole thing!

You can also get tickets with cool bonus packages like a Skype conversation with me, a curated reading list, suggested rituals, access to recordings of previous courses I’ve given, and more!

I’ve done a lot of media lately, including the legendary Hound Tall podcast with legendary comedian Moshe Kasher on the legendary network, Nerdist! Okay, look, I’m pushing this legendary thing, I get it. The point is, it was fun, like the movie, Legend. Basically, I talked about sex and the occult with a bunch of comedians. They interrupted me a lot, but in funny ways. Moshe’s been on Portlandia, Drunk History, and more. He also has a new show on Comedy Central, Problematic with Moshe Kasher. He’s hilarious and he’s obviously in love with me. Listen to our conversation here.

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I was on the coolest Swedish Deleuze-meets-cultural-studies podcast (yes, yes, the joke is that it’s the ONLY Swedish Deleuze-meets-cultural-studies podcast, but it’s still the coolest), The Catacombic Machine. Me and Josef Gustafsson discuss a lot of things: desire, Rudolf Steiner, Gilles Deleuze, and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. It’s a nice big mindfuck of a podcast, so give it a listen!

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I’m part of this year’s Explore More SummitExplore More SummitExplore More Summit! It’s an online conference featuring tons of sex researchers and experts, set up by sex educator, Dawn Serra. She’s awesome and asks great questions. The way it works: You sign up for free and get access to a whole lot of stuff. If you pay, you get access to a ton more stuff.

Happy to announce I’m the first guest of 2017 on one of my favorite podcasts, Rune Soup, hosted by author and occultist, Gordon White. (If you want to skip past this stuff, just scroll down to the podcast.)

I found Gordon through a series of synchronicities: Last year, I spoke to an occulty friend of mine in San Francisco after three years of not communicating (nothing bad, we just sort of dropped out of each other’s lives). “Conner, you’ve got to read this book called The Chaos Protocols! It’s a completely new take on the economic climate and how to engage with money and the world we live in now,” he said. Or something to that effect.

I trust my friend’s taste, but to be honest, I did what I often do when people recommend stuff to me – I thought, “Sure, sure. Another magick book. I’ll get to it in 2052.”

Okay, okay, I’ll look this guy up. When I checked twitter, I saw that we followed each other. Huh? I had no memory of following him, nor of him following me. He must have just tweeted something awesome and I instinctively hit the Follow button. A few months later, I’d read The Chaos Ptotocols (it’s excellent, as are his other books, Star.Shipsand Pieces of Eight) appeared on Episode 24 of his podcast, Rune Soup (which is also the name of his excellent occult-meets-politics website), and was becoming fast friends with Gordon.

I’ve been studying both postmodern philosophy and the occult for decades now, and you know? They’re not easy! They’re difficult to read and understand, even as you sense the deep value in them.

But put them together and, whoa, alchemical reaction. Gold.

Below is the course description; click through to the Eventbrite page to sign up! (Oh, and, if you sign up for a Gold ticket, you get an occult-meets-postmodern t-shirt designed by me and customized to your size!)

Below that are a bunch of podcasts I’ve been on, interviews I’ve given (including one super in-depth interview with a literary magazine). Busy fella; thanks for hanging out with me!

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BANISHING THE WORLD: POSTMODERN PHILOSOPHY & THE OCCULT

Like the two snakes that twine around Hermes’s staff, the occult and postmodern philosophy embrace the same deep revelation:

The world is not as it seems.

But while the occult has been pushed out of serious academic study, postmodern philosophy remains much-discussed and influential. Of course, philosophy’s roots are in the occult: initiates in classical cultures discussing the meanings and substances of the universe. Then, as religion rose to new heights of power, philosophy rebelled against the magical, supernatural, and mystical. Now, after the distractions of the modern era, philosophers – as much as they may deny it – have once again found themselves at the altar with the occultists, the witches, and the mystics.

The postmodern philosophers are in many ways the mystics and maguses of our time. They speak in strange languages, presenting uncanny riddles, and exiling the old world by revealing the new. They’re renaming the gods, influencing cultures, changing medicine and science, and more.

– Why it’s all so complicated, anyway, and how using the occult to approach postmodern philosophy and vice versa can make both easier to understand.

– How to use both occult and postmodern ideas to reenvision the world you live in.

– How occult ideas have found their way into academia, science, and activism through the conduit of postmodernism.

Conner will guide you through the complex ideas of the occult and postmodern philosophy in plain, easy-to-understand language in this live, online course. It’s for the beginner and the adept alike.

The one-session one-hour lecture will be followed by a Q&A, so you’ll be part of the mind-expanding discussion.

If you can’t attend the day of, or if you want to watch the lecture again, you’ll have exclusive access to a recording of the course for 90 days. SIGN UP HERE!

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UPDATES

PODCASTS!

I’ve returned to the great, mystical, dangerous, raspy clutches of The Duncan Trussell Family Hour! It’s my fourth appearance on the comedy-meets-sprituality-meets-tech-craziness podcast. I seriously love doing Duncan’s podcast. We go deep, and Duncan is one of the best conversationalists out there. Also, we invoke the god Pan together at the end. So, um, there’s that.

I was on writer/comedian/adult film witch priestess Sovereign Syre’s podcast, Observations. We talk about being (and not being) nice to other people, identity politics, and more. It’s a good one. Her podcast in general is pretty great. Listen to it.

PRINT! I was featured in the rebel lit magazine, The Matador Review. It’s a good interview, and I’m proud of it. I like that I got to compare making porn to what César Aira must feel when he writes his novels.

Here’s an excerpt: “…style is a mood. In other words, style is really this unique mood that you’ve created out of yourself. No one else has that mood, no one else has access to it. When you’re actually in your style, you experience a mood that you don’t experience in any other space, a mood that no one else can experience. That’s how you know you’re doing it. It’s this feeling of some emergence from you…”

Hurray that I got to be in Hot Press, which is basically the Irish Rolling Stone. I was interviewed by Olaf Tyaransen, who is the resident outlaw reporter there. Full disclosure, some of the facts are wrong in the interview. But that reflects an even deeper truth: that Olaf and I drank too much Guinness when we spoke.